Common residential or commercial air conditioning systems include an exterior condenser unit and an interior evaporator unit. In such systems, an inert refrigerant fluid such as freon gas is compressed within the system's exterior condenser unit, and excess heat generated during the compression is conducted to the outside environment via the operation of heat radiating fins and an electric motor powered cooling fan. Such compressed refrigerant is then conducted via high pressure air conditioner refrigerant conveying lines through an aperture within the building's exterior wall to enter an interior evaporator unit component which includes an endothermically radiating “A” coil element. Refrigerant pressure and flow within the system's flow loop or circuit injects the compressed refrigerant into the “A” coil and conveys the refrigerant therethrough. Phase changes within with the refrigerant from a compressed liquid to a substantially evaporated or atomized form occurring within the “A” coil dramatically cool the “A” coil, and also cool the fan driven air which flows over the “A” coil and dispenses into the interior of the building. Gaseous refrigerant emitting from the “A” coil and emitting from the system's evaporator unit returns via air conditioning lines to the outdoor condenser unit for recompression and exterior heat dissipation and for successive further cooling upon return to the “A” coil in a fluid flow circuit.
A commonly encountered problem with such air conditioning systems is refrigerant leaks. A small leak at any location within the system's refrigerant flow loop or circuit including liquid and suction air conditioning refrigerant conveying lines extending to and from the building, heat exchanging conduits within the exterior condenser unit, and heat exchanging conduits within the interior evaporator unit, may undesirably render the entire system inoperable. Locating such leaks is often difficult, and leak locating difficulties undesirably complicate the task of repairing system leaks.
The instant inventive air conditioning system solves or ameliorates the problems described above, while preserving all of the normal functionality of commonly known compressed refrigerant based air conditioning systems by including within the refrigerant flow loop or circuit a series of specially configured and specially placed refrigerant isolation valves.